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Topic: Help!! Complete Electrical Failure (Read 681 times)

I've been plagued by random, complete, and very dangerous complete electrical failures on my new '09 G5. At first I thought the battery might not be holding its charge, but that was not the case. Then, having metered the Voltage regulator output, it looked as though the voltage regulator wasn't outputting the correct voltage (12.8v to 13.8v). Finally a new voltage regulator arrived, I swapped it out and headed out for a lovely ride. 45 minutes out, and all was well. 40 minutes back and she died. The engine didn't sputter, just turned off. I put the clutch in, and glided over to the hard shoulder. Thankfully I wasn't in heavy traffic and only a few blocks from home. With the lights off, I nursed her back to within a block of my house, then she gave up the ghost completely.

Has anyone else had a problem like this? Any thoughts? I've heard nothing but outstanding reviews on the reliability of the UCE bikes, but this really is neither reliable, nor safe...

a. What is the voltage you where getting when you checked your bat. and called in for a new regulator. I need to know that number if it was over 20 Volts your bat. is fryed and you should ideally change out the RR and the bat at the same time. Or it will keep taking out more and more RR units.

b. When you limped home on the bike did you chk your bat ? i.e. has it drained out totally. Or has it still got charge.

Please answer the above two questions.

Before somebody comes on and tells you not to be a naby pamby and complain about small electrical issues.

Id like you to check your Side stand s/w and your clutch s/w. My strange cutting offs where traced to this.

When my RR unit failed they found that one of the indicators wires had come loose. And was shorting the frame. (Well to be honest I did take the bike off roading).They taped up the short. Replaced my RR and Bat and the bike is fine now.

Weak points on the Bullets have allways been its switches and this seems to have carried over to the UCE also. But trust me its a simple fix.

Answer the above questions and we can help you isolate and solve the problem once and for all.

My battery was fine. Metered out at around 12.8.I didn't check the battery when I landed. I'm now away from home for the next few weeks.

"Namby Pamby" - HA! Haven't heard that expression since I left Blighty 12 years ago.

I disconnected my sidestand switch after the first time I got a cut out. Daft idea really, I mean if you need that to tell you your side stand's down..... So we can take that out of the equation as the first cutoff happened before I disconnected it.

I think she's going to have to go back to the dealer to get the full diagnostic done. Quite a pain as the dealer's in Reno and the bike's in Venice Beach CA....

The loose switch causing the cutoff is interesting. Thank you very much indeed. I hope you're right.